Endless Forms
by Wicked World
Summary: Sometimes the hardest part of ending is starting again.


Synopsis: Sometimes the hardest part of ending is starting again. Post "Enemies of Fate"

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Immediately after the wavelengths of their submerged memories begin to oscillate wildly again, Peter and Olivia start to record weekly videos. They leave them for Walter to view, which he does, watching the progression of their lives as if he were still right there next to them, and they speak to him as though he never left; and in this way they spend their lives together even though they are separated by a gulf of almost two centuries.

As parents, Peter is obscenely proud and Olivia is fiercely protective, and together they create a thoughtful child with a compassionate, stable, and brilliant mind. In her first year of biomechanical engineering at Stanford, Etta hesitatingly calls to tell them she might be falling in love with an older poli sci grad student, and they are both relieved. In another life they'd taken the full measure of the man, and found him worthy.

Upon retirement, Nina directs her considerable resources to a dream deferred, and within three years has a viable Triple Crown contender in a gelding named Bishop's Seahorse. Taking over the horns from her grandmother, Etta oversees biomedical and technological advances that firmly cement Massive Dynamic's already ruthless stranglehold on the fields of medicine, technology, and defense. She also implements a new mission directive (known company-wide as the "Walter Initiative"), creating a _pro bono publico_ pharmaceutical wing of Massive Dynamic. Over the next three decades they make inroads with cancer suppression treatments that lead to increased life expectancies across the board and moderate victories in eliminating specific classes of neoplastic disease, and along the way they partner with other charitable foundations to completely eradicate malaria and rubella. Peter and Olivia can only shake their heads in wonder at their daughter. Despite her busy schedule, on Friday nights Etta will occasionally still trot trot to Boston with Simon and their dog Schrödinger (she has her grandfather's quarky sense of humor, flavored more with charm than strangeness) to hang out with her parents over Italian take-out and cheesy horror flicks.

Once her daughter safely reaches her fourth birthday, Olivia finally stops looking over her shoulder expecting the hammer to drop. With Peter by her side and Etta underfoot, she breathes easier and sees farther than she ever has before in her convoluted life. She serves as Broyle's hand-picked successor when he is tapped as Secretary of Defense in President Rodham-Clinton's second term, and although Olivia accepts the supervisory position, she proves entirely incapable of sitting behind a desk. Her superiors gently (but repeatedly) reprimand her, pointing out that she is no longer a field agent and is not expected to participate in Fringe Division casework, but they eventually turn their attention to more winnable battles. During her long tenure at the Bureau and subsequently at the Department of Homeland Security, she instills trust and loyalty in her people because Olivia continues to do what Olivia always does, which is to get it done. Broyles feels an enormous pride in his charge's accomplishments, and he tells her this every chance he gets. Olivia can no longer imagine a time when she ever wanted to go back to before.

Peter fulfills an unspoken promise and enrolls in the theoretical physics program at MIT. He earns his PhD in two years, attending classes in between casework and writing his seminal four page dissertation (a proof solving the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem, for which he will be awarded a Millennium Prize three years later) during weekends while Etta runs around the park picking flowers, collecting leaves, and chasing butterflies. He inscribes it "Dad - I wouldn't change it for the world either" and Walter delights in reading it over and over again with a glass of Akevitt in hand while sitting in his large sunroom overlooking the wildflower-strewn shores of Lake Mjøsa. On the day of his successful doctoral defense, Peter is immediately offered a fully tenured faculty position in the department, which he turns down with a wry grin and without a second thought, to the horror of the entire administration. For a graduation gift that night his wife makes an honest man of him and gives him an MIT shirt, and he laughs and says he's going to wear it to impress the girls. Olivia rolls her eyes and they both wear their respective alma maters to bed, though not for long.

As a young child, Etta could never pronounce Astrid's name, so "Astro" had stuck, beginning the cycle once again of a Bishop never calling a Farnsworth by her true name. Under Walter's intense and eclectic tutelage, Astrid had developed into more than just an accidental scientist, and her default now is to think in terms of research design and testable hypotheses. She formally assumes Walter's role in Fringe Science Division (after first deferring to Peter, who wants no part of that nine to five responsibility, preferring to remain a civilian consultant). Astrid works the most difficult cases with authority and insight, and in moments of downtime the Harvard lab often smells of cinnamon and apples, because it relaxes her to create desserts in Walter's honor.

Once a year this unlikely little family unit made up of unrelated DNA strands (save for Etta, who binds them all) gathers for a few days at the house at Reiden Lake to raise a glass in Walter's honor. Nina and Broyles fly in by private jet from their home in McLean; Peter, Olivia and Astrid drive up together from Boston; and Etta and Simon make the trip in from Manhattan. Under the liquid moon they sit looking out over the water, watching the signaling fireflies and listening to the frogs, black space going on forever in all directions and the constellations drifting like smoke above them.

And later, in the last moments before consciousness winks out and they each spiral back into star stuff, Walter, Peter, and Olivia will close their eyes for the final time in this iteration and learn they will meet again on the next turn of the wheel. They will tessellate perfectly in repeating patterns, and although this time will be no less exciting, no less important, and no less challenging, it will be easier. The immutable laws of time and space will once again detour around them; the universe has tallied what they are owed, and allowances will be made to balance out the ledger.

An End.

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Author's Notes:

Title from Charles Darwin: "Whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

Synopsis from Linkin Park's "Waiting for the End."

Nods along the way to William Carlos Williams, Carl Sagan, and Alan Shapiro.

No copyright infringement intended, recognizable characters/elements belong to their respective owners.


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